Producers of goods and services often find it helpful to understand customer needs in order to develop products that fulfill these customer needs. Some information that a manufacturer may desire regarding a customer's needs include, for example, how the customer is using the product, how often the customer is using the product, what the customer likes or dislikes about the product, and what the manufacturer can do with future products to satisfy the customer's needs. From this data, the manufacturer can tailor future products to better fit the customer's needs.
Although this information can be of great value to a manufacturer, collecting this information can place a burden on the customer because of the time it takes to implement, for example, a data collection service. Specifically, regarding the manufacture and sale of printing devices and collection of data therefrom, a user may not wish to download and install a data collection file.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.